Doctors told Steve Dillman the throat cancer he was diagnosed with in 2008 came from smoking. He knew it didn't.
"I thought it had to be job-related because I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't chew. I don't drink excessively ... and that's the three main criterias," he says.
But Dillman did spend 38 years as an Indianapolis firefighter — and that included running into burning buildings.
Dillman, who's now retired, recalls one fire on Aug. 1, 1985. That day, his fire station responded to a call at the American Fletcher National Bank warehouse in downtown Indianapolis.
Firefighters noticed something strange and painful after they put out the flames. Everywhere they sweated – under their arms, around their groins – their skin peeled, like it had been sunburned.
Dillman later learned the warehouse was filled with boxes treated with a flame-retardant chemical that sent toxic gases into the air – including formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
Dillman was diagnosed with prostate cancer 16 years later, and throat cancer seven years after that.